After Maison Blanche

Chapter 1

John sat in his cell, chained to the wall in the dungeon of Maison Blanche. He hadn't slept all night. All around him, carved into the floor, and the wall, was the word, Doc. John used the edge of his manacle to scrape across the ancient stone. Over and over again, Doc. His wrists were bloody, and inflamed. Still he scraped and carved, unable to do anything else while his brain continued to roar its helplessness, and it echoed off the walls of his mind.

    The door to his cell opened, and Celeste walked in carrying a tray of food. She looked at him in that way she had, a mix of boredom and I don't give a fuck, and she said, "I've brought your breakfast."

    "I told you I won't eat drugged food," John said weakly, scraping the line on the letter D.

    "If you don't eat. You will die," Celeste told him.

    "If I do eat, I'll die," John said, continuing to carve into the stone. "John Black will cease to exist. Wouldn't you call that death?"

    Celeste sighed. This John Black was a hassle she'd never asked to deal with. Stefano and his projects were exhausting, "Stefano is becoming angry with your lack of cooperation, John."

    "Where's Doc?" John asked.

    Celeste glanced along the wall, and at the floor surrounding John, saying, "She is safe. That is all you should concern yourself with."

"I want to see her," John said, coughing.

    "I'm going to have to speak with Stefano about your wrists, John," Celeste told him, noting the blood that dripped from his arm, and the smears across the stone all around him. "Your hurting yourself, and you will be useless to Stefano."

    "Do you think I fucking care?" John roared. "I want to see, Doc!"

    Pushing his tray of food closer to him, Celeste left his cell, intent on finding Stefano.

    John continued the scraping. The sound was calming, and he'd stopped feeling any pain hours ago. He kept seeing Marlena tied to the chair, unconscious. Her blonde hair spread about her, as her head hung limply to the side. Stefano had the ultimate weapon in Marlena. The old man knew, John would do anything to keep her safe, anything. He knew that eventually, John would consume every drugged food placed in front of him, if John thought Marlena's life was at risk.

Without Marlena, John would continue to refuse to eat. He would become weaker and weaker, eventually dying. That wasn't going to happen. Stefano had plans for John Black. Plans that did not include dying. With Marlena at Maison Blanche, and the constant worry over her safety, John would be more malleable, more cooperative. The same could be said for Marlena, she would do anything for John.

    Stefano was smug when he entered John's cell. John claimed to love Kristen, but Stefano knew better. Maybe on some level, John did love Kristen; however, Stefano knew the woman John really loved, the one he would die for, was Marlena, and he would use that to his advantage. He stood in the doorway, and allowed the light from the hallway to leave a halo around his body, "I know you are a very determined man, John, but not even you can hope to break tempered steel, eh?"

    Stefano stepped further into the murky depths of the room. Looking around he realized that John wasn't trying to escape. He had instead surrounded himself with one name over and over again, further reinforcing Stefano's feeling that Kristen was nothing more than a distraction. A way to forget about the one woman who would always hold John Blacks heart. Stefano snorted in disgust. When he had first decided to send his mercenary to Salem to pose as Roman Brady, the man had balked. What an epic mistake that had been on Stefano's part. He stared at John in frustration, "See, you tried to escape, John, and I cannot have that happen again, but...look on the bright side..."